3. Jonny May’s England initiation
Joe Marler made his debut early on the tour in 2012 – cracking out ‘Someone like You’ by Adele – but May was left waiting. On one of the long bus journeys, the prop suggested to May that the time was right for him to show off his singing talents.
“I said to him. ‘Jonny, we’ve got a really long trip. It’d be good for you, for morale, if you got up and did Ice Ice Baby’. Because he knows it word for word. It’d be good for morale, I said.
“He was like, ‘But I haven’t got a cap, Joe. I haven’t been capped’.
“I said, ‘They won’t care, mate. You f***ing get up there. It’s entertaining the crowd. You know it word for word’.
“‘I’m not sure Joe’.
“‘F***ing do it, mate. Boys will love you. You know it word for word. You came on tour late; it’s a great way for the lads to get to know you’.”
So, up gets May and he began to start beat-boxing and singing the Vanilla Ice rap classic.
The reaction he received was instant… and brutal. Marler continues:
“He starts going, and I go, ‘F***ing hell, I’ve made him do it. I’ve actually made him do it’.
“‘Ice Ice…’ he begins. From the back [you hear], ‘SIT DOWN! F***ING SIT DOWN!’ All I’m hearing from Haskell, Toby Flood, all the other boys is, ‘SIT DOWN! WHERE’S YOUR F***ING CAP? YOU HAVEN’T GOT A CAP! SIT DOWN NOW. YOU’RE NOT WELCOME HERE. SIT DOWN, YOU F***ING PR**K!!’
Marler encouraged May to keep going and, in fairness to him, he kept rapping through a torrent of a bus.
When it was over, he sat down and dropped his head in his hands. To Marler, and Haskell, the best was yet to come.
“Jonny eventually looks up. ‘You said it would be good to get up!’“